Which to use
“portaient” and “portèrent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,459
- “portaient” frequency rank
- #49,863
- “portèrent” frequency rank
- 61322
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portaient | portèrent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de porter. | Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple de porter. |
Where the eye mixes portaient and portèrent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. portaient (CVCCVVVCC) and portèrent (CVCCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses portaient with portèrent
A purely visual mix-up. portaient (\pɔʁ.tɛ\) and portèrent (\pɔʁ.tɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61322, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portaient is recorded at frequency rank #11,459, classified as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɛ\. portèrent is at rank #49,863, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɛʁ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 61322, this pair ranks #92,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of portaient vs portèrent
Shared letters: enoprt. Private to "portaient": ai. Private to "portèrent": è.
"portaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "portèrent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- portaient ← oprtaient · poratient · porrtaient · portaeint · portaiennt · portaientt · portaietn · portainet
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "portaient" and "portèrent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "portaient" or "portèrent" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "portaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portèrent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #92,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portaient" and "portèrent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "partirent vs portèrent". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #92,880 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.